The missing month

I managed to make it through the entire month of July without a single post. This is rather sad, especially as July was such a full month! Of course, that may explain the lack of posts…

In a nutshell – I had my last week at work (insanely busy, at the office until 9pm on my last day – a Friday); went immediately to Miami to meet Luis and see his family briefly; then we headed to Asheville, North Carolina for our “last” vacation together, at least until Luis is done with Law School, stopped by Durham to see some friends; back to Cambridge to be social butterflies, seeing old and new(er) friends, throwing parties (House Cooling was great, if very hot), eating at our favorite restaurants, and beginning to pack (we packed all our books before the movers came to officially pack for us); a final good-bye BBQ thanks to Thunder and his wonderful mother; then the last day of the month, the movers came, and we left, by Acela, for NYC. So that was July.

I hope to get a post about Asheville up sometimes soon, but in the meant time, you can look at my pictures from our trip.

Now it is August, and we are in the Big Apple. As some of you heard from conversations with me, I was rather apprehensive about this move. I had grown comfortable in Cambridge, with my commute, my favorite restaurants, my book stores and farm share. Now I must find new favorites, new bits of comfort, new ways to get access to all the things I want (fresh tomatoes, organic milk, fair trade bananas, recycled paper products…). But aside from being daunting, that is also exciting!

And today I took a step in that process – I went to my first Greenmarket! This is the Columbia Market, at 114th and Broadway. I know, it doesn’t look like much, and with about 5 vendors, it isn’t all that much, but it is year-round (though I have no clue what I’ll see there in January), and they have some good stuff now. Also, it’s two blocks from my front door.

I came home with peaches, tomatoes, an eggplant, a zucchini, a yellow squash, some red new potatoes, a cucumber, some apples, two ears of corn, some butter, some garlic, an onion, a head of lettuce and a bunch of basil. This made me pretty happy. Only one vendor advertised himself as organic, but at least it was all local (well, grown in New York State), so that’s a good start.

We’ve also popped into Labyrinth books on our street, Milano Market (where they make great salads and sandwiches), a sushi place, a “tapas”/fusion restaurant and lounge and the Morgan Library (which has a lovely collection of medieval pieces, the actual library where Pierpont Morgan spent his time, and some fascinating manuscripts and hand-written musical scores). So I think we’re doing well.

Pictures of our apartment, now finally free of boxes, should go up tomorrow, and more tidbits of discovery will be sure to follow.